I'm creating my first PalmOS application and I'm having the my next huge problem now.

The user should be able to enter a search string and the application shows all records, where the string was found. That's working great. I entered some test-strings in an array and coded the search routine.

But my problem now is, that I have to handle about 18000 data records and I don't know how to get them into my application.
My first experiment with entering in my source code worked great with some test data. But as I expected, it doesn't work. My compiler tells me "<b>string segment too large</b>", when I try to enter all my data this way. When I test it with only 800 records, I can compile my application but I only get a white screen on my Palm and it seems to hang up.

Has anybody an idea at can explain it to an absolute PocketC-noob, how to get 18000 data records into that machine?

One last info: My Palm is a <b>Z22</b> - no card reader - only touchpad, pen and HotSync via USB.

Split the data into smaller parts, like 200 strings (that would mean 18000/200=90 applications). Then append the strings into the same database.

Each application opens the same database and creates 200 records. At the end, a database is created with all the records in it.
The disadvantage of this is that you will have to create 90 identical apps except for the strings, and each of apps need to be executed once.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by sangahm</i>
<br />Another way is to use a database application like SmartlistToGo, or DB-Pilot, and bring them into that database. Then use your app to read the records.

OrbForms Designer has the orbpdb utility which allows converting between a PC file (text, CSV, ...) and a PDB file. In your case you can create the 18000 record file on your PC, convert to PDB and sync it to the PDA. This can happen as often as the database updates are needed.

Not sure if this utility is available for PocketC licensees (but your code looks like PCA ?) but at the very least you can buy OrbForms Designer for a reasonable amout of money to get the utility if it's not already available. (Actually, download PocketTEA from PalmGear; I think I include it in the distribution!)

Thanks to you both. That seems to be a good tool. But I still have one little (I hope my last) problem.

When I sync the PDB file, the application on the Palm is deleted and when I sync the application, the database is deleted. For both, I use the same Creator ID and in the OrbForms Designer, I've entered the DB name.

What do I do wrong?

// edit:
I think, I got it! I must not enter the same DB name in the Designer as the PDB uses. It has to be a unique name, where the application is saved. Right?

I didn't find how to search a string in the database. So, at the moment I'm opening each record and compare, if the searchstring is found. But it takes so very very much time to open and compare each database record.